Healthcare Human Resources Policy & Nurse Well-Being

Recent policy debates surrounding issues regarding health service delivery and escalating costs have come to the fore within political and policy discourses. Indeed within the current economic climate this debate has broadened to include several areas of the public sector. What is the human cost involved in delivering adequate and efficient health services to a population currently exceeding four million? This paper will aim to illustrate how current policy connects with the practice of human resource management in health. It will look at the context of health services and the direction of Irish health policy. The relevance of looking at the role of HR specifically in this context in order to contribute meaningfully to enhancing the lives and work of health employee's is then explored. The paper will look at nurses as a core employee health group, and the question of whether HR policies and practices can potentially influence employee well-being is asked.